Perhaps this other Ron is just having a bit of sport with all of us. I
have often thought that it would be fun to to ask the simpliest
questions and then just not get it no matter hard the the respondents
triedto help. Hmm...wait a minute, the heavies in the VBA group may
feel that I have actually engaged in that sport from time to time.
Gook luck with your form.
Just to clear things up. I am the "Ron" that actually started this string
and I am not trying to have sport with you. I appreciate the explanations,
especially the links to the articles.
Perhaps I am a simpleton, but more likely just uninitiated to programming
Word. Part of the problem is that what I thought was an simple question with
a simple answer like changing a radio button in the wizard has turned out to
be amazingly complex. The challenge for me is that the answers are very
linear, and assume a basic understanding and a vocabulary that I don't have
yet. As a global thinker, I need to see the big picture and work down to the
detail. Unfortunately, most of Microsoft's help entries are small snippets
of detail and it is hard to assemble all the pieces together to get the big
picture without getting lost on a bunny trail. For example, which toolbar you
are referring to? I was using the "Forms", but it doesn't seem to have the
features you refer to. The "Control tool box" looks similar, but slightly
different; what is that all about? And then there are features in "Visual
Basic" that look like they might apply. Is that what you are referring to?
How is the programming in visual basic related to the
documents/templates/userforms?
Then there are the comments about Documents Vs Userforms. I know about
documents, I kind of know about templates (although I didn't understand how
useful they could be until I read the article. - thanks), but I am not sure I
have ever seen a "Userform". (The steps in the article on userforms didn't
work) What do they look like, how do you use them, and how do you create
them? What is the relationship between a Document, a Template, a Userform
and a Database? Are Userforms freestanding objects or do they require a
database to store the answers in? If they require a database, how am I going
to distribute that to other users? Can it be imbeded in the template or in
the userform? And how do I get the answers from that database back into the
document I am trying to create.
Then there are problems with the Templates. When I save them to my USB
drive they don't work. When I change one and then try to save it, it won't
accept the same name. Changing the default location for templates to point to
the USB drive doesn't work, so then, "Where were they originally to change
them back"?
Most of the information in my document stays the same with small changes
every day, so I don't want to start with a new document fresh from the
template everyday. Most of it I want to keep and just edit. So changes I
make in the template don't necessarily show up in the document. But
occasionally whole sections start fresh, so I have been editing my template
and then cutting and pasting sections into the document so that it evolves
over time. It works for me, but a little complicated for other users.
Another problem is that not all parts of the document are used everyday, so
how can I make it so only the parts being used that day are printed?
So, to make a long story short, I still haven't figured out how to implement
the answers to my original question, but I am learning a lot. Thanks for
trying.
> Perhaps this other Ron is just having a bit of sport with all of us. I
> have often thought that it would be fun to to ask the simpliest
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> Gook luck with your form.
Greg Maxey - 26 May 2006 11:43 GMT
Ron,
Sorry about the foopah. I never meant to imply that you were a
simpleton. In fact I have been in practically the very same situation
that you are *overwhelmed by Word* not that long ago. There is still
much I don't understand and spend a fair amount of time on the
bunnytrail ;-)
>From the decription of your needs, it sounds like you need a template
(stored in your template directory that contains the *boilerplate* text
of your very similiar daily document. Then have a Userform that
*appears* each time you create a new document using that template. I
am still on the bunnytrail when it comes to giving a technical
explanation of what a Userform is. It is created using VBA. I am off
to work just now so can't go into great detail. Have a long at these
links and you will at least see what a userform looks like:
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Validate_UserForm_TextEntry.htm
http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Custom_MsgBox.htm
antinyx - 26 May 2006 15:08 GMT
Greg,
Thank you this looks helpful. (One more piece to the puzzle). I am off to a
cousisn's wedding myself, so I will look at it more next week.
> Ron,
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Validate_UserForm_TextEntry.htm
> http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Custom_MsgBox.htm